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mcler and Intluence of American (;ivili;iation. 



s 



AN 



ORATION 



DELIVERED 



BEFORE THE AUTHORITIES 



CITY OF LOA\^ELL, 



JULY 4th, 1855. 



BY AUGUSTUS AV O O D B U R Y 



PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE COMMITTEE OF ARRANGEMENTS. 



LOWELL: 

S. J. VARNEY, (27 CENTRAL STREET,) PRINTER 
1856. 

MiQk^ . 




t 



The Character and Influence of American Civilization. 



AN 



ORATION 



DELITERED 



BEFORE THE AUTHORITIES 



CITY OF LO^i;^rELL, 
JULY 4th, 1855. 

BY AUGUSTUS WOODBURY 



PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE COMMlTTEt OF ARRANGEMENTS. 



LOWELL: 

S. J. VARNEY, (27 CENTRAL STREET,) PRINTER. 
1855. 






CORRESPONDENCE. 



Rev. Augustus "Woodbuby, — 

Dear Sir: — At a meeting of the Committee of 

Arrangements for the Municipal Celebration of the Fourth of July, holden Satur- 
day evening, 7th instant, it was unanimously voted to instruct the Secretary to 
request of you a copy of your oration for publication. 

Pursuant to said vote, I hereby cheerfully comply with its instructions. 
Hoping that you may be induced to grant the Committee the favor they so earn- 
estly ask, I am. Sir, 

Yours, very respectfully, 

JAMES "WATSON, Secretary 

Committee of Arrangements. 
Lowell, July 9, 1856. 



Lowell, July 9, 1855. 
My Dear Sir : — 

I cordially accede to the request of your Committee, as convey- 
ed to me so kindly in your note of this morning, and herewith transmit to you the 
manuscript which you desire. If its publication will conduce, in any way, to a 
better understanding of the principles on which American Liberty is based, and 
a truer appreciation of the value of American Institutions, the object of my efiforts 
will be fully answered. 

Very truly yours, 

AUGUSTUS WOODBURY. 
Jakes Watson, Esq., Secretary of Committee of 

Arrangements for Municipal Celebration of July ^h. 

7 t-" 



ORATION. 



My Fellow Countrymen : — 

There is a Providential design in National life, A 
Nationality, born with convulsive throes, it may be, 
has always a peaceful work to do. It is not by 
chance that peoples and empires start on their way. 
Providence decrees and Time obeys. God rules among 
all the inhabitants of the earth. He gives to each 
man and to each Nation, the peculiar task which be- 
longs to him and to it. By the combined fidelity of 
each to the given work, is made up the sum of human 
welfare. And so it is, as I am glad to believe, that 
the events of History are the manifestations of the 
workings of great Providential plans for the accom- 
plishment of human good. These events, some prom- 
inent, others humble, all important, have a character 
and an influence reaching far beyond themselves. 
Each is a link in one endless chain. Each has a pe- 
culiar history, stretching back into the eternal past, 
and forward into the eternal future. 

To some events must belong a more decisive char- 
acter and a more powerful influence, than to others. 
They serve as landmarks, by which the race knows 
the stages of its advancement. They show the rate 



of progress, the distance already travelled over, the 
distance yet before the pilgrim — man. Around them 
cluster the ajffections, the hopes, the everlasting and 
undying interests of mankind. They mark new eras. 
They give life to future ages. They decide the fate 
of nations and continents, and have wrapped up with- 
in them the destinies of Humanity. I think I do not 
overstate the case when I say that an event, such as 
these, was the birth of this American nation. I de- 
light to feel, that my country did not start on its 
career of life, without a great design of good for all 
the nations of the world, on the part of Him who 
gave its founders such wisdom to plan and such 
strength to execute. I delight to feel that on its 
course depend the most important interests of the 
race of man. I delight to feel that, under Provi- 
dence, it has the greatest work to accomplish for the 
promotion of human civilization. 

There can be then, as it seems to me, no better 
subject, upon which to occupy our thoughts for the 
brief period allotted to these exercises, than this, 
which I propose to consider, viz : 

TuE Character and Influence of the American 
Civilization. 

In discussing this subject I shall proceed to state 
what that character and influence were designed to 
be, and what they would be, were there no disturbing 
element to counteract their effects, and then inquire 
what that element is. " The real greatness of our in- 
stitutions," as some one else has said, " does not con- 
sist in the forms under Avhich we hold our liberties, 
but in the magnificent possibilities that underlie those 
forms, as their fundamental supports and conditions." 



The birth of America and American ideas was no 
sudden thing. Centuries prepared for it. Events of 
unexampled importance were its preface. Magna 
Charta, wrung from England's tyrant John in 1215; 
the revolt of the human mind, headed by Martin 
Luther, Germany's best noble, because Germany's no- 
blest man, ensured of success in 1521 ; these two were 
the preparatory steps for the founding of Plymouth 
Colony. And Plymouth Colony was the preparatory 
step for the Declaration of Independence. Was it by 
chance that Columbus found a New World, in that 
age, when Luther gave the Old World religious free- 
dom"? The adventurous navigator, as another has 
truly said, " sought the New World to complete the 
geography of the globe ; God opened it to complete 
the destinies of Humanity." Was it by chance that 
this broad expanse of country, now the abode of 
Protestant Republicans, remained so long unsettled 
after its discovery — remained unsettled, indeed, till 
there were Protestant Republicans to settle it ? Not 
till the principles of civil and religious freedom were 
absolutely sure of victory in Europe, and the contest 
of a century was decided in favor of liberty — not till 
the men could be found who were fitted to constitute 
a State, was this land permanently occupied for settle- 
ment. And then, by whom? Not by the subjects of 
Catholic Spain, searching for gold, but by the free 
men of Protestant England, fleeing from the oppres- 
sion which, so contrary to the spirit of the English 
constitution, was binding them at home, and here, re- 
moved from the influence of old prejudices, and on a 
soil untouched by the burdens of feudalism, laying 
the corner stone of a Republic, whose name should 



be the symbol of its nature. God-fearing men they 
were, and fully aware of the real worth of individual 
manhood. As they sat in council on the deck of the 
Mayflower, as she lay at anchor in Cape Cod Harbor, 
and, ere yet they landed, drew up the compact by 
which they were to be governed, did not an inspira- 
tion from the Being, whom they sought to worship in 
the freedom of their own consciences, give them pow- 
er to work even better than they knew 1 Were they 
thinking then, that they were consummating a union 
between the two grand principles which were the soul 
of a new civilization, and that they were presiding 
over the birth of constitutional liberty for a whole 
continent I No thought of such a magnificent work 
may have crossed their minds. They came in the 
strength of simple duty. And the result of their ac- 
tion, did it only teach the world how wide the influ- 
ence and how strong the power of duty is, would be a 
suflicient reward for all their toils. Yet, true it is, that 

" Souls destined to o'erlcap the vulgar lot, 
And mould the world into the scheme of God, 
Have a fore-consciousness of their high doom." 

The splendid scheme of future greatness may have 
risen before their eyes. Their charter, and the char- 
ters of the other colonies, reached from the Atlantic 
to the Pacific. That Pacific they had never seen, nor 
did they hope to see it. But doing their present 
duty, they left the results with God. Gov. Bradford 
ventured to indulge the hope — " that, as one small 
candle may light a thousand, so the light kindled here 
may, in some sort, shine even to the whole Nation." 
Who shall say, in contemplation of the fruition of that 



hope, that some prescience of the vastness of then- 
work did not find a lodgement in their minds ? 

A century and a half have gone by. The men of 
Plymouth have passed away. Yet all along the At- 
lantic sea-coast live Englishmen. Thirteen colonies 
have filled the narrow strip of shore-line with busy 
life. Hardy and courageous mariners, shrewd and 
enterprising traders, dwell securely in the sea-port 
towns. A manly and vigorous population, skilled 
alike in using the plough, and handling the musket, 
is scattered among the rural villages. The crack of 
the woodman's rifle is heard among the solitudes be- 
yond the AUeghanies. The Indian wars have taught 
the colonists how to repel invasion. The pulpit has 
given them lessons of godly instruction, and nurtured 
them in a religious manhood. The school-house, now 
dotting every hill-side, has shown them how to think 
for themselves. The town meeting has instructed 
them in the political economy of self-government. 
The necessities of colonial life have told them of the 
power of productive industry. Provincial soldiers 
have taught British veterans the art of war, and saved 
British armies from destruction. Provincial divines 
have founded churches which acknowledge no bishop 
as their spiritual head. Provincial scholars have 
claimed for themselves and their colony respect and 
honor. And these things have been done, not by 
the help of a titled nobility, nor by the aid of rank 
and position and hereditary wealth, but by the simple 
force of a true manhood. What are titles, rank, po- 
sition, on this virgin soil, and beneath this open sky ? 
Let every man prove himself to be a man and let that 
be his nobility! To use one of our local phrases — 



8 

which has more meaning in it than at first sight ap- 
pears — every man had to fight, till the ground, 
plough the sea, learn his letters, preach the Gospel, 
and live the Gospel " on his own hook I" 

You may trace the whole line of colonial history, 
from what was done at Jamestown in 1607, through 
what was done at New York, Plymouth, Massachu- 
setts Bay, Providence Plantations and along the 
Southern border; through the early Indian wars, 
and the later French wars ; through the protests 
against the aggressions of the English government, 
till open hostilities broke out and the Eevolution 
fairly commenced, and you will find this idea central, 
this peculiarly American idea, as the principle of the 
New World civilization, namely, the idea of the worth 
of individual manhood. The old civilization had it 
not. It was the very soul of the new civilization. It 
had grown with its growth, it had strengthened with 
its strength. Every colonist felt, or was soon made 
to feel, when he touched the shores of the New World, 
that his shackles had fallen oft', that his limbs were 
free, that his mind and soul and heart and conscience 
were his own, that there was no bishop to rule his 
faith, no king to play the despot over him — that he 
was, in short, a man, and that he would now be 
judged and estimated at the value, not of his pos- 
sessions in houses and lands and titles, but at the 
value of the manhood which he was able to carve out 
for himself. As an instance of the power of this 
principle in a single direction, consider how the bat- 
tles of Lexington and of Bunker Hill were fought, 
both within the limits of our own county of Middle- 
sex. Who were they that drove those British vet- 



erans ten full miles or more on that warm April day? 
Massachusetts militia men, farmers, mechanics, work- 
ing men, almost without organization, and led by no 
commander stronger than what was within their own 
hearts, the love of country, home, and a noble man- 
hood. Who were they, that fortified Breed's Hill by 
breast- works, hastily thrown up in a single night, and 
a rampart made of rail-fences and new mown hay, 
and held these impromtu fortifications against the 
desperate assaults of British troops — nay, twice drove 
them back in confusion, and were only forced to re- 
treat, when their own ammunition was exhausted? 
Who were they ? The raw militia men of New Eng- 
land, who had been disciplined to depend upon them- 
selves, and do their own work with all their might ! 
It puts a wonderful courage into a man's heart, and a 
wonderful power into a man's hand, this idea of his 
inborn worth. 

The Declaration of Independence was thus not a 
thing of a moment. It had been gradually growing 
up within the hearts of the whole people of the Ameri- 
can colonies. The term the English gave them — 
" our subjects in the colonies" — they repudiated with 
scorn. They were not subjects. They were free men, 
who must be represented in the English Parliament, 
and when that representation was refused, they were 
prepared to have a Parliament of their own. This 
was why the Declaration of Independence was re- 
ceived so readily and with so much favor. " All men 
are created equal." It was but the expression of the 
thought that was in every one's mind. This was why 
the new form of government was assumed with so 
little internal convulsion, by all the colonies, and 



10 

unitedly sustained by them. Mr. Jefferson vvrites to 
Franklin, August 13, 1777: "With respect to the 
State of Virginia, in particular, the people seem to 
have laid aside the monarchical and taken up the re- 
publican government with as much ease as would 
have attended their throwing off an old, and putting 
on a new suit of clothes. Not a single throe has at- 
tended this important transformation." And what 
was true of Virginia was true of all the rest. Some 
writers are accustomed to liken the birth of this na- 
tion to Minerva springing fully armed from the head 
of Jove. It was not so. The truth was simply this 
— the people had been teaching themselves the princi- 
ples of Republicanism for a century or more. When 
the time for action came, could the lessons of a hun- 
dred years be forgotten 1 

It is needless for me to say, that on this principle 
the war of the Revolution was carried through to its 
successful issue. On the battle fields of the country, 
not armies of men only, but principles came in conflict 
with each other. On the one side the principle of 
despotism ; on the other, that of liberty. Could the 
result be doubtful ] Even in the disasters of the pe- 
riod, God did not forsake the right. When the cause 
seemed gloomiest, there were rays of light shining 
through the overshadowing clouds. New York might 
be lost, Philadelphia might be in the hands of the 
enemy, Valley Forge might be the scene of unex- 
ampled suffering from hunger and cold, the retreat of 
the American army through New Jersey might be 
tracked by blood from the soldiers' naked feet. Yet 
while Washington was at the head, and the love of 
individual freedom in the heart, the event was not 



11 

woubtful. Trenton, Princeton and Monmouth made 
up the losses of former years. And when the drum 
beat the roll call at Yorktown for the reception of a 
conquered British Army, it was the principle, and not 
men, that triumphed. American bayonets not only 
thought, but felt, and wrote down upon the tablets, 
from which History made up its records, the Ameri- 
can principle. It was the same afterwards. The 
Constitution embodied the American idea, and the 
Republic assumed its place in the family of nations, 
with this grand truth for the centre of its civilization, 
and the guide of its course — that man was free, and 
manhood was the power that made him free. True, 
I remember that there were individual exceptions to 
the statement which I have made. There were those 
in the nation, who still clung to the idea of a mon- 
archy. There were some, who even desired to make 
Washington a king — audit is certain that no one 
deserved better to be a king than he. But in the 
hearts of the mass of the people, the idea lived and 
governed their life ; and it is no less to the praise of 
the sagacity of Washington than of the purity of his 
patriotism, that he saw that it lived, and that the 
principle was of far more value than the gratification 
of personal ambition. 

But, you say, why could not all this have been 
done in Europe ? Why should a New World be re- 
quired to work out this theory of national life I My 
answer to these questions is this. It has not even 
yet been done in Europe. And, the fact that it has 
been done only in the New World, is a proof that the 
New World was needed for the scene of its doing. I 
by no means forget that in Europe there were and 



12 

still are Republics. Greece, Rome, the Italian Re- 
publics of the middle ages, Switzerland, and the -free 
cities of Germany, are not out of mind. I am not 
blind to the progress of constitutional freedom in Eu- 
rope. In relation to these matters, this much only 
can I now say. Grecian republicanism was a repub- 
licanism of petty states, between which there was no 
strong bond of union, and no particular principle on 
which they could coalesce at all times, whether in 
peace or war. Roman republicanism bore almost en- 
tirely a municipal character. The former fell before 
the power of great states with which it came into 
collision. The latter rapidly sunk into obedience to 
the Empire. Italian republicanism, though similar 
to the Grecian, had by no means so powerful an ele- 
ment of life as its prototype. In the history of this 
republicanism, says M. Guizot, " we find the course 
of events, instead of aiding the progress of liberty, in- 
stead of enlarging the circle of institutions, tending to 
repress it ; tending to concentrate power in the hands 
of a smaller number of individuals." Southern France 
also tried the experiment at one time, but the demo- 
cratic element there was overborne by the feudal ele- 
ment of Northern France. Holland, once had its 
form of liberty, but even then it "was ruinously 
divided against itself." Poland has striven unsuccess- 
fully for freedom, and lost its entire nationality in its 
defeat. In Switzerland, feudalism ranged itself on 
the side of the municipalities, and its influence has 
been very perceptibly felt upon the Swiss Republican- 
ism, even to the present day. England, freest of all 
the European monarchies, is yet bound, to a very 
great extent, by the domination of the aristocracy. 



13 

One good result of the present war has been to show 
the utter incapacity of that domination, and thus to 
elevate the people, who have, in their private enter- 
prise, vindicated their superiority. The progress of 
European constitutionalism (if I may be allowed to 
use the term) has been largely promoted by the in- 
fluence of American republicanism. No, Fellow Citi- 
zens, I believe that a new world was needed for the 
grandest trial of republican principles, which History 
has ever recorded. And you and I thank God, to- 
day, that, when the New World was needed, the New 
World was ready ! 

The great principle of individualism, to have its full 
development, and its complete effect, must be tem- 
pered by some other principle. It is not simply in- 
dividual liberty to be established, for that would soon 
run into the extreme of license, and unrestrained free- 
dom would result in anarchy. So our civilization 
has a two-fold character. It does not express the 
liberty of the individual man alone, but also that lib- 
erty directed by the power of law, which all, or the 
greatest number, of individuals in the State agree to- 
gether to create and support. If there is a centrifu- 
gal force, which, if uncontrolled, would dash the State 
in pieces, there is a centripetal force likewise, which 
neutralizes the evil effects of the other, and both com- 
bined unite in harmonious action for the good of the 
whole. And so it is constitutional liberty — liberty 
under law, which is the entire characteristic of our 
civilization. The compact of Plymouth Colony ex- 
presses it in its own terse and comprehensive lan- 
guage — " by virtue hereof to enact, constitute and 
frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, con- 



14 

stitutions and offices from time to time, as shall be 
thought most meet and convenient for the general 
good of the Colony, unto which we promise all due 
submission and obedience." The same idea is ex- 
pressed in Robinson's letter to the Pilgrims on the 
eve of their departure — " Whereas you are to be- 
come a body politic, using civil government amongst 
yourselves, and are not furnished with any persons of 
special eminency above the rest, to be chosen into 
office of government, let your wisdom and godliness 
appear not only by choosing such persons as do en- 
tirely love and will diligently promote the common 
good, but also in yielding unto them all due honor 
and obedience in their lawful administrations. And 
this duty you may the more willingly and conscion- 
ably perform, because you are, at least for the present, 
to have only them for your ordinary governors, which 
yourselves shall make choice of for that work." That 
was but a new and briefer mode of expression of the 
same thing in the language of the Declaration of In- 
dependence — " Governments are instituted among 
men, deriving their just powers from the consent of 
the governed." And in the Preamble of the Consti- 
tution, the language is — not we the governors, or 
the officers, but — "We, the people of the United 
States, do ordain and establish this Constitution." 
So that it was settled at the beginning, as clearly as 
any thing of the kind could be settled, that American 
liberty was not to be that mad power, which, without 
restraints, hurries into license ; not the right to over- 
turn established governments in the rabid excitements 
of popular fury, but a calm, self-possessed, and self- 
possessing power, guided by sound and consonant 



15 

principles of justice, and having, as its source, the 
acknowledgement of human rights. All its restraints 
are self-imposed and so are all the more powerful. 
All its forces are from the consent of those who live 
under its sway, and so are all the more forceful. 
There is nothing mechanical, nothing derived from 
without. But it is, as it were, a complete system of 
dynamics, from the humblest citizen to the highest 
officer. Both alike are amenable to the laws which 
both have agreed to enact, execute and obey. And 
here is our security against usurpation. The Execu- 
tive chief, even with an army at his back, in case he 
should try the experiment, would find himself weaker 
than a common policeman. The sheriff's wand of 
office would suffice to turn aside the bayonets of a 
regiment. And this is so, simply because the civil 
officer would represent the whole American people. 
Liberty under constitutional law then, not simply in- 
dividual liberty, is the complete principle of the 
American civilization. 

II. It is to be expected that the promulgation of 
such a theory of government will have a vast in- 
fluence, not only upon those who adopt it as their 
own, but upon those outside of the boundary of the 
Nation. So I pass to the second division of my sub- 
ject, and proceed to consider the influence of our civi- 
lization upon ourselves in the formation of our own 
institutions, and upon the nations of the world. 

Institutions are the forms of ideas. They crystal- 
lize, as it were, around some central principles. — 
American institutions have crystallized around the 
American principle of individual freedom and indi- 
vidual worth. All things exist for the welfare of the 



16 

in()ividual man — that is the proposition attempted 
to be proved by American life. Popular suffrage, 
popular education, a popular religion are but the re- 
sults of American individualism. The Church must 
have no authoritative head but its own great Founder. 
Independence of spiritual authority, that form of 
Church government which we call Congregational- 
ism, in which all the members stand on an equality, 
the pastor himself not above the humblest — that is 
the embodiment of the American Church. And it is 
to be very clearly seen, even by the most casual ob- 
server, that other forms of the Church, however dif- 
ferent from this may be their expressions, are still in 
spirit nearly allied to it. Our Presbyterianism and 
our Episcopacy are still, in reality. Congregational. 
The churches assume the right to choose their own 
teachers. And there is no ecclesiastical body in the 
land that would dare deny to them the exercise of 
that right — dare — there is none that would luish to 
deny them. Even our Roman Catholicism, — that ex- 
otic plant which absolutely cannot flourish in our 
climate, — even our Roman Catholicism itself has been 
impregnated with the principle of individualism, and 
is fast losing its hold upon its subjects. When the 
fact is clear, that over a million of its members have 
been lost to the Roman Church within the last seven 
or eight years, in our country; when symptoms of 
revolt against the priesthood are rapidly showing 
themselves among the people ; when the great princi- 
ple of our civilization is every day becoming better 
and better understood, and its influence more and more 
strongly felt by even the most bigoted Catholic and 
the most ignorant foreigner, it seems to me, that we 



17 

have little to fear from a system of Church govern- 
ment, which is so utterly at variance with the spirit 
of the American people. If that poor old man at 
Eome, who presides over its destiny, can only retain 
his position among a people trained to subjection, by 
the help of foreign bayonets, there is but little cause 
to dread his influence among a people trained to in- 
dependence. Let us have faith in the power of our 
own ideas, and not waste our strength in a vain con- 
test with shadows. 

Out of this idea comes our principle of Religious 
Toleration. Free churches among a free people must 
have free action. If men are created equal in rights, 
religious equality is one of those rights. Each man 
must be left to the freedom of his own conscience. 
It is for this, the fathers of New England left their 
native land. They came across the wintry sea, to 
find a country wherein they could worship God ac- 
cording to the dictates of their own consciences. 
Shall their sons prove false to the principles, which 
the fathers proved true through exile and persecution 
and death ? If religious freedom is good for us as a 
people, religious toleration must always be its com- 
panion, and he is no really true American who cannot 
grant to others the same toleration which he claims 
for himself. 

Connected with the independence of the Church, 
and the religious education of the people in free 
churches, is the education of the people's children in 
Free Schools. To these we proudly point as Ameri- 
can institutions of the highest order. And these 
grow legitimately from the principle of individual 
worth. The State exists for the man, and not the 



18 

man for the State. Given that, and the condusion is 
at once arrived at, that the State must educate the 
men who are to control the State. And, as with us, 
that control is in the hands, not of a few, of a privi- 
lef^ed class, but in the hands of all the people, educa- 
tion must be general, and freely within the reach of 
all. So we build the free school house by the side of 
the free church ; we open wide its doors, and ask all 
to enter in. No one is excluded. The child of pover- 
ty, clad in rags it may be, is on a perfect equality 
with the child of v/ealth. As in the light of Vmeri- 
can civilization, there is no difference, so in the 
practice of American education there is no distinction. 
Not riches, not birth, not position, but merit, dili- 
gence, and the genius, which all the treasure and 
power of the world cannot buy, are the conditions of 
success. The highest prizes of scholarship are with- 
in the reach of the humblest pupil in our schools. I 
am very far from believing, that there are any of us 
who would wish this to be otherwise. With the gen- 
erosity of our nature, when once it is directed to 
worthy objects, we freely give to all who wish the 
privilege, the opportunity for learning to be men. 
Education shall be free. No consideration of sect, 
no rule of caste, no narrowness of clanship, shall pre- 
vent it. Ingrained into the very being of American 
life, and associated with the grand eras of American 
history, it is part and parcel of our civilization, and 
we cannot separate it, without rending out the nation- 
al heart. The free education of the people and the 
people's children — with that fully ensured, our re- 
publicanism can never be in danger. 

The Freedom of the Press likewise grows out of the 



19 

main principle of our civilization. With us, where 
almost every hamlet has its newspaper, it is almost 
impossible to calculate the influence of a free press 
upon the character and condition of the people. A 
very important engine in the working of our national 
system, a real power in the popular education, while 
it is a natural product of our institutions, it is also 
fast assuming the place of an institution of itself. 
Would we have its freedom curbed 1 We are con- 
fessedly curbing our own ; and though in many cases, 
its influence may be evil, the choice is very easily 
made by us, between a censorship of the press and its 
entire independence. It may be as M. de Tocqueville 
has said, that the press " constitutes a singular power, 
so strangely composed of good and evil, that it is at 
the same time indispensable to the existence of free- 
dom, and nearly incompatible with the maintenance 
of public order ;" yet who would wish, that the main- 
tenance of order should be made to depend upon that 
action, which would restrain what was indispensable 
to the existence of freedom ? There may be abuses 
of its power, but we can bear with these when we re- 
member the priceless advantages which it ofi"ers. If 
despotism alone is the remedy of its abuses, while it 
must be the destruction of its advantages, we prefer 
the republicanism which will leave it unmuzzled and 
free. I rejoice to believe that in our midst there is 
power of character and principle sufficient to use it 
well. I rejoice to feel, that in God's good Provi- 
dence, evil will at some time, nay, always does suc- 
cumb to good, and so I hail the freedom of the press 
as one of the strongest safeguards of our liberty. 
Popular Suffrage, too, is the product of our civili- 



20 

zation. Our theories demand that it should be made 
as widely universal among us, as is compatible with 
the continuance of our system of government. We 
have no rule now, but a term of years and sex. I am 
very free to say, that I consider character and intelli- 
gence the very first requisites for the exercise of the 
right of suffrage. It would, of course, be difficult in 
these, as in other matters, to say who should discrim- 
inate, or, perhaps most difficult to discriminate at all. 
It may be well that our system, as at present, should 
be so simple. Yet, who shall say that there is not an 
opportunity for a still simpler method, and that ma- 
ture age and an understanding of our principles 
should be the only basis of the rule 1 I am glad that 
our suffrage is now so general and free. I could, by 
no means, favor an attempt in any way to limit that 
freedom. I do not think it can be limited in safety. 
I do not think our theories of national life can allow 
it to be limited. I would have every man feel, native 
born or foreign born, that he has a voice in the form- 
ation of the government. I would have him feel that 
he has a duty to perform, and a responsibility to bear, 
towards the country of his birth, or of his adoption, 
as a citizen and a man. Shall we be in danger there- 
fore *? I have more faith in the power of our national 
ideas and our national spirit, than to believe that there 
is any danger to be feared from such a course. The 
American idea and the American spirit are magnani- 
mous and liberal. And though there are evils which 
we deplore in our system of suffrage, yet we believe 
that they are not necessary parts of that system, and 
furthermore, that they will not be cured by any narrow 
or illiberal course. Liberty itself has its evils, but the 



21 

only cure for them is — liberty. The right of suifrage 
may be abused ; demagogueism may take advantage of 
the ignorant and the unwary ; office-seeking politicians 
may secure by intrigue and unmanly compliance with 
the whims of the hour, their coveted positions. But, 
we will not therefore take away the right of suffrage 
altogether from any person ; we will punish the dem- 
agogue rather than his victim ; we will strike down 
the ambitious office-seeker, rather than proscribe those 
whose votes he strives for. Let us watch and wait. 
By the slow but sure process of the influence of our 
institutions our suffrage will be purified, and the time 
will come, when foreigner and native, black and white, 
shall look on one another, not with hostile, but with 
friendly eyes, and, hand in hand, work for the eleva- 
tion of the State, they both are proud to call their own. 
I delight to feel that my country is not alone a 
refuge, but a home, for the people of every nation, 
clime, and color. I rejoice in the manifestations of 
its power in assimilating them all to the theories of its 
life, and making of the most heterogeneous materials 
a common and united nation. I am glad to know that 
our civilization is not selfish and narrow, but generous 
and wide, and that its unquestioned influence is to 
make us a generous and, through our very generosity, 
a powerful people. I recall now those words of 
Patrick Henry : — " Encourage Emigration, encourage 
the husbandmen, the mechanics, the merchants of the 
Old World to come and settle in this world of prom- 
ise ; make it the home of the skilful, the industrious, 
and the happy, as well as the asylum of the distress- 
ed ; fill up the measure of your population as speedi- 
ly as you can by the means which Heaven has placed 



22 

in your power, and I venture to prophesy there are 
those now living who will see this favored land among 
the most powerful on earth. Yes, they will see her 
great in arts and arms, her golden harvests running 
over an immeasurable extent, her commerce penetrat- 
ing the most distant seas, and her cannon silencing the 
vain boast of those who now affect to rule the waves." 

While I glory in the fulfilment of the patriot's pre- 
diction, I rejoice in the adoption of that policy which 
made it sure. Yes, let the nations come, and find 
within the sheltering arm of our protection, that 
freedom which they have longed for, and will learn to 
love ; that happiness which has been the goal of their 
efforts ; that elevation of character, which shall be at 
once the product and the praise of our enlightened 
civilization ! I delight to contemplate too, the idea 
of the sovereignty of the people. Not in the execu- 
tive head of the nation, not in the cabinet, not in the 
congress, but among the people themselves, do we find 
our government. And, while I have faith in the in- 
telligence, the good sense, the patriotism of the Amer- 
ican people, I do not fear for the stability of the 
political institutions of the country. 

I pass to the consideration of the influence of our 
civilization upon productive industry. " No people 
in the world," said De Tocqueville, twenty years ago, 
" has made such rapid progress in trade and manufac- 
tures as the Americans. They arrived but as yesterday 
on the territory which they inhabit, and they have 
already changed the whole order of nature for their 
own advantage. They have joined the Hudson with 
the Mississippi, and made the Atlantic Ocean commu- 
nicate with the Gulf of Mexico, across a continent of 
more than five hundred leagues in extent, which sep 



i 



23 

arates the two seas. The longest railroads which 
have been constructed up to the present time are in 
America." Rapid as had been our material progress 
then, it is now still more rapid. With our agricul- 
tural products valued at ;j(l, 600,000,000 ; with our 
manufacturing, mining and mechanical products, val- 
ued at over ^1,000,000,000 ; with our 4 1-2 millions 
tons of shipping; with our imports amounting to 
;^270,000,000, and our exports to ;$f230,000,000 ; with 
our 17,000 miles of railroad already open, and 12,000 
miles in construction, very nearly as many as in all 
the rest of the world beside ; with our 30,000 miles 
of telegraphic communication, to say nothing of our 
numerous canals and other internal improvements, I 
think, we can safely challenge comparison with any 
nation on the globe, in regard to the amount of work 
which is accomplished by our population. The very 
effect of our system of life is to make us industrious. 
All honest work with us is honorable, for the worth 
of each man's manhood gives honor to his labor. It 
is the idle man alone, that is in bad repute. We can 
safely let him go to Europe, and find in her aristocratic 
communities, that honor which is there given to idle- 
ness. But here, and this is worthy of our grateful 
remembrance now ; here, amid our busy life, the stim- 
ulation of the intellect, and the direction of the mind 
to ways of labor ; here, it is honest industry alone 
that claims and receives our regard. It is no wonder 
that an American yacht should prove the excellence 
of American shipping in European waters ; that an 
American reaping machine should bear away the palm 
in the World's exhibition of agricultural inventions ; 
or that an American discovery should work a world- 



24 

wide revolution in the ways of the world's travel. 
When there is free labor upon a free soil, a free head 
and a free heart to direct, and a free hand to do, we 
need have no fear of the result ! 

It is time that I should speak of the influence of 
our civilization upon the nations of the world. The 
work of America, in moulding anew the life of man- 
kind, was early understood by the founders of the Re- 
public. What Bradford said, I have already quoted. 
He was by no means alone, in the unconscious inspir- 
ation, which pointed to a future full of good to man- 
kind, to be made real by the course of American 
history. He, it is true, with the men of his time, 
thought more of the religious influence which the 
planting of New England would exert, than of that 
political influence, which, in after times, was felt to be 
exercised by the life of the nation. It was left for the 
men who afterwards helped the Republic into exist- 
ence, to discern tha more extended power which it 
would enjoy in the world. We feel that both were 
not mistaken. The end has shown the justness of 
their thought. Such words as they used were words 
of prophecy. In the very Congress that passed the 
Declaration of Independence, there were those, who 
deeply felt the importance of the task which they had 
taken in hand, and understood the influence which it 
would exert, not only upon the state which they were 
founding, but also upon all the states of earth. Rich- 
ard Henry Lee of Virginia, in the course of the debate 
upon the subject of the declaration, said : "I know 
not whether there has ever been presented a delibera- 
tion more interesting or more important than this, 
which now engages our attention ; whether we con- 



25 

sider the future destiny of this free and virtuous people, 
or that of our enemies themselves, who, notwithstand- 
ing their tyranny and the cruel war, are still our 
brethren, and descended from a common stock ; or, 
finally, that of the other nations of the globe, whose 
eyes are intent upon this great spectacle, and who an- 
ticipate from our success more freedom for themselves, 
or from our defeat apprehend heavier chains and a se- 
verer bondage." Even before this time, while yet the 
contest was preparing, the American colonists seemed 
to have an idea of the greatness of the work which 
was before them. The people of Boston in 1772 de- 
clared, that the enumeration of the infringements upon 
their rights would '• not fail to excite the attention of 
all, who consider themselves interested in the happiness 
and freedom of mankind." The Boston Committee 
of Correspondence — that body of men who contrib- 
uted most of all in New England to kindle resistance 
to tyranny into the flame of revolution — " were en- 
couraged " this same year " to trust in God, that a 
day was hastening on, when the efforts of the colon- 
ists would be crowned with success, and the present 
generation furnish an example of public virtue, worthy 
the imitation of all posterity." Samuel Adams, in 
1774, anticipated that " Providence would erect into 
a mighty empire " the American colonies. " We have 
enlisted," said the Boston Committee, " in the cause 
of our country, and are resolved at all adventures to 
promote its welfare ; should we succeed, our names 
will be held up by future generations with unfeigned 
plaudit." The same spirit was abroad among the pa- 
triots of the Revolution afterwards. Hear Franklin, 
writing from Paris to Samuel Cooper, May 1, 1777: 



26 

" All Europe is on our side of the question, as flir as 
applause and good wishes can carry them. Those 
who live under arbitrary power do nevertheless ap- 
prove of liberty and wish for it. They almost despair 
of recovering it in Europe ; they read the translations 
of our separate colony constitutions with rapture. 
Hence it is a common observation here, that our cause 
is the cause of all mankind, and that we are fighting 
for their liberties in defending our own." Jefferson, 
writing to Madison from Paris in 1785, says: "the 
late proceedings in America have produced a wonder- 
ful sensation in England in our favor. There was an 
enthusiasm towards us all over Europe at the moment 
of the peace." After the adoption of the Constitution, 
Jefferson, in 1788, writes: "we can surely boast of 
having set the world a beautiful example of a govern- 
ment, formed by reason alone, and not by bloodshed." 
Even by Europeans themselves, the momentous char- 
acter of the Revolution was understood. As early as 
1768, when signs of resistance to England's oppression 
began to show themselves, the French statesman, Du 
Chatelet, speaking of the separation of the English 
colonies, declares, that " this new order of things will 
necessarily have the greatest influence on the whole 
political system of Europe." " As a citizen of the 
world," said Turgot in 1770, "I see with joy the ap- 
proach of an event, which, more than all the books of 
the philosophers, will dissipate the phantom of a pre- 
tended exclusive commerce. I speak of the separation 
of the British colonies from their metropolis, which 
will soon be followed by that of all America from 
Europe. Then and not till then, will the discovery 
of that part of the world become for us truly use- 



27 

ful." Hutchinson in Massachusetts said at the same 
time : " We have many people who are enthusiasts, 
and believe they are contending for the cause of God." 
In our own day, when the results of our national life 
are beginning to be perceived, there is the feeling 
that those men spoke the truth, when they declared 
the greatness of the cause. " The spirit of human 
liberty and of free government," said Mr. Webster 
in 1832, " nurtured and grown into strength and 
beauty in America, has stretched its course into the 
midst of the nations. Like an emanation from Heaven, 
it has gone forth and it will not return void. It must 
change, it is fast changing the face of the earth." 
" As Rome," says Mr. Guyot, " wrought out the social 
work of antiquity, America seems called to do the 
same service for modern times, and to build up in the 
New World, the social state of which the Old world 
dreamed." " Henceforward," says a recent English 
Reviewer, " it is no longer England, but the North 
American Republic, that has become the pole-star to 
which, from all sides, the eye of struggling nations 
turns." 

Do I err, then, fellow citizens, in the estimate 
which I place upon the power of that influence, 
which our Republic, its theory of Government, and 
its principles of civilization, have exerted and still 
exert upon the life of mankind? Is it not true that 
no event of modern history has had so wide an in- 
fluence as that which raised into the position of a na- 
tion these united Colonies 1 When I recall to mind 
what has been accomplished among the nations since 
that event — when I remember the achievement of in- 
dependence on the part of the Spanish Colonies of 



28 

America — the struggles in which the friends of liber- 
ty have been engaged upon the other side of the 
Ocean, I cannot but feel that their greatest hope of 
success has been excited by the contemplation of our 
success. If we speak of material good, we have but 
to think of the sails of our ships whitening every 
ocean of the globe, and our commerce extending to 
every people under heaven. China and Japan, the 
most exclusive of nations, open their capitals to our 
diplomacy and their ports to our trade. If we speak 
of social good, what better contribution can we make 
to society at large than the knowledge of our well 
ordered communities, the wide diffusion of intelli- 
gence among our people, and the general correctness 
of our public opinion 1 If we speak of political ben- 
efit, we can safely point to our representative system, 
our political equality, the great practical lessons of 
our self-government. If we speak of moral and re- 
ligious influence, we need only to refer to the high 
standard of conduct, which is upheld among our va- 
ried population, and the zeal and energy of our benev- 
olent operations. If we speak of a benefit conferred 
upon Humanity, we have to show the world how tri- 
umphantly we have pronounced our truth of human 
equality and individual worth. American power has 
made itself felt, American statesmanship has command- 
ed admiration, American learning has received a will- 
ing homage. While, if the world shall ask for exam- 
ples of public virtue and civic worth, we have to show, 
among a host of honored names, the inflexible patriot, 
Samuel Adams, the chivalrous and ardent lover of free- 
dom, alas! too early slain, Joseph ^A'arren, the wdse 
and benevolent Franklin, the peerless WASiUKGToif ! 



29 

Let us believe, that we are performing a most im- 
portant work among the nations. Let us think, not 
with pride, but with a deeper consciousness of our 
responsibility, that, for nearly a century, the eyes of 
men have been turned upon us with joy and hope. 
If, as Jefferson once said, " there is scarcely a good in 
European countries, which is not derived from the 
small fibres of republicanism existing among them," 
how much more of good must there be, when those 
small fibres have been strengthened into great powers 
by the influence of our national life ! Yes, it is true, 
we are engaged in the " cause of all mankind." The 
welfare of millions is depending upon our fidelity to 
our ideas of government and civilization. Complete 
fidelity will give us an influence almost omnipotent. 
Teaching the nations this sublime lesson of human 
capacity for self-government, — this sublime lesson of 
liberty under law, — the nations will not be, as they 
have not been, slow to learn and apply it. And the 
struggling victims of European and Asiatic despotism 
will bless the day, that declared the North American 
colonies of Great Britain a free and independent state ! 

Fellow citizens: I would wish that I could rest 
here upon the grateful contemplation of my country's 
noble position. But justice, both to my subject, my- 
self and to you, demands that, ere I close, I should 
ask you to consider the elements of barbarism that 
manifest themselves among us, poison the spirit of our 
civilization, sap the foundations of our power, and 
weaken everywhere our influence. If, as was urged 
with great ability, not many years since, by one of our 
best New England divines, "barbarism is our first 
danger," I feel that we are threatened with no greater 



38 

danger, than that barbarism which has grown into the 
direful system of Slavery. Were it not, that I felt, 
that this system was wholly outlawed, wholly alien to 
all our theories and all our principles of national life, 
wholly un-American and anti-Republican, it would 
have been very far from me to speak in such terms of 
exultation. We cannot but feel that this bane of our 
civilization is by no means a product of our republi- 
canism, but is, by all means, antagonistic to it and 
destructive of it. The very opening sentence of the 
Declaration of Independence it denies. In contradis- 
tinction to it, it boldly affirms, that all men are not 
created equal. It refuses to allow, to at least three 
and-a-half millions of the governed, any voice what- 
ever in the government. The worth of individual 
manhood it contemns as foolish and absurd. It 
makes its way, preserves its life, and extends its do- 
minion, in the completest defiance to all the princi- 
ples upon which law can be based. Against the laws 
of nature and against the laws of God, it arrays itself 
in deadliest conflict. There is not a single feature in 
the American civilization, with which it has affinity. 
There is not one of our institutions, which it does not 
stigmatize. With the whole spirit of our constitu- 
tion, it is at variance. Not only what we have in- 
herited from our ancestors, the trial by jury, and the 
right of habeas corpus, but what we have wrought for 
ourselves, the freedom of the Church, popular educa- 
tion, universal suffrage, the power of productive in- 
dustry, it utterly destroys. A man is reduced to the 
condition of a thing, and God's child degraded into 
the character of property. The Church is under its 
base control. Free schools cannot exist under its 



31 

deadening influence. A free press it will not endure. 
Free suffrage is unknown. Labor is disgraceful, and 
the arm of industry is paralyzed. And the one great 
hindrance to the extent of our beneficial influence 
abroad is the existence of slavery at home. Even the 
course of justice is hindered, and the administration 
of law a failure. When I remember how it blights 
and withers all which it touches, and how it nullifies 
the power of the nation everywhere, by showing with 
how terrible a despotism our republican liberty can 
coalesce, I am forced to feel that it is not only a sin 
against a poor and despised race, but also against hu- 
manity and civilization — that it is not alone at en- 
mity with American ideas of manhood and its worth 
but also with every good interest of the human race. 
I am ashamed to read in the writings of Englishmen, 
such words as these: "Republican America has elab- 
orated a tyranny, such as no democracy, no aristocra- 
cy, no monarchy, no despotism ever perpetrated, or as 
far as we know, ever imagined ;" and I am more 
ashamed, when I think how much truth there is in 
the remark. Is this the language of declamation ? 
Can we forget the systematic cruelty with which the 
laws of the Slave States are framed, depriving mil- 
lions of men of all the rights of manhood ? Do we 
forget that refinement of cruelty, the most barbarous 
of enactments, making even the performance of Chris- 
tian duty, criminal — the Fugitive Slave Law of the 
United States 1 Do we forget that there is one sub- 
ject in the Church on which there is a perpetual ban? 
Do we forget, that a woman was imprisoned in Vir- 
ginia, scarcely a year since, for teaching negro chil- 
dren to read the Bible? Do we forget the expulsion 



32 

from South Carolina of Massachusetts' honored rep- 
resentative, sent upon a lawful and peaceful mission 1 
Do we forget that awful tragedy in Louisville, and 
yet another still, but a few short weeks ago, in Mis- 
sissippi I Do we forget the destruction of the press, 
almost a common thing, if it but speaks of the rights 
of man 1 Have we not ample evidence, in what has 
been done in our Western Territories, in what has 
been attempted upon Cuba, in what has been threat- 
ened even beneath the very shadow of Bunker Hill, 
in the daily cruelties, in one form and another, which 
must necessarily be inflicted upon hundreds of help- 
less men, women and children all through the South, 
that in the midst of our civilization, there is this ter- 
rible and corrupting element of barbarism 1 

If there is an American citizen before me, W'ho 
doubts the truth of what I have said, or is disposed 
to treat this matter lightly, let me call up before him 
the memory of the venerated dead, and bring to his 
recollection their recorded opinions. Benjamin Frank- 
lin petitioned the early Congress, to go to the extent 
of its Constitutional po^ver, to abolish slavery in the 
country. In the colonial Assembly of Virginia in 
1772, it was declared by such men as Patrick Henry 
and Richard Henry Lee, that the number of slaves 
'• already in the colony gave them just cause to ap- 
prehend the most dangerous consequences. The in- 
terest of the country manifestly requires the total 
expulsion of them." They called the Slave Trade 
one of " great inhumanity ;" they said that it retarded 
" the settlement of the colony with more useful inhab- 
tants, and may in tiaie have the most destructive in- 
fluence." Jefferson, that great champion of Democ- 



33 

racy and equal rights, the author of the Declaration 
of Independence, early expressed his opposition to the 
system of slavery. In 1785, he declared that the 
emancipation of the slaves of Virginia was one of the 
great objects of his life. In 1786, he used the follow- 
ing language : " What an incomprehensible machine 
is man ! Who can endure toil, famine, stripes, impris- 
onment, and death itself, in vindication of his own 
liberty, and the next moment be deaf to all those mo- 
tives, whose power supported him in his trial, and 
inflict upon his fellow men a bondage, one hour of 
which is fraught with more misery than ages of that 
which he rose in rebellion to opposed And again the 
patriot sage utters his warning voice to the future : 
" With what execration should the statesman be load- 
ed, who permitting one half of the citizens thus to 
trample on the rights of the other, transforms those 
into despots, and these into enemies ; destroys the 
morals of the one part, and the patriotism of the other. 
Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that 
God is just; that his justice does not sleep forever. 
The Almighty has no attribute that can take side with 
us in such a contest." Across the ocean, come those 
words of him, who, in his generous youth, devoted 
his life to our cause, the brave Marquis de LaFayette : 
" While I am indulging in my views of American pros- 
pects and American liberty, it is mortifying to be told 
that in that very country, a large portion of the people 
are slaves. It is a dark spot on the face of the nation." 
Forth from the shades of Mount Vernon speaks the 
deep voice of Washington : " I can only say that there 
is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I 
do, to see a plan adopted for the abolition of slavery ; 



but there is only one proper and effectual mode by 
which it can be accomplished, and that is by the leg- 
islative authority ; and this, so far as my suffrage will 
go, shall not be wanting, * * * it being 
among my first wishes to sec some plan adopted by 
which slavery in this countiy may be abolished by 
law." Sainted names in the American calendar! 
While their voices come to us over the long reach of 
history, to guide, to counsel, to warn, let mine be si- 
lent ! Theirs to teach of liberty, ours to heed well 
the lesson ! 

Shall we then despair of the American civilization ? 
No, fellow citizens ; rather let us hope. Never was 
the power of liberty stronger ; never did it call upon 
us with more encouraging tones, to be faithful ever- 
more to the great ideas, in which the Republic had its 
origin. What, my brothers ! Shall this great state, 
chosen by Providence to be the vindicator of the rights 
of human nature, sent into life to be the benefactor of 
mankind, forget its lofty mission, neglect its noble 
duty, and spend its energies — those energies which 
are to be exerted for the welfare of the race — in the 
degrading work of forging new fetters for the feeble 
and helpless negro slave 1 Forbid it, every generous 
emotion of the American heart ! Forbid it, every high 
principle of American civilization ! Forbid it, ye 
whose memory is our glorious birth-right, and whose 
spirits, even now, may be watching the course of our 
history with paternal solicitude ! Forbid it, thou Great 
Father, in whose sight we are all one and brethren ! 

It is to us, fellow citizens, that this subject now ap- 
peals. Let us give heed to the appeal, and answer it, 
with a heart and mind and hand single to the welfare 



35 

of the land we love the best, remembering how that 
welfare will conduce to the benefit of all human life. 
Let no narrow or selfish policy turn our thoughts 
and acts away from the great duty, Heaven has im- 
posed upon us. Let it be ours to help in pronounc- 
ing anew the principles of the Fathers, in making the 
Eepublic a power on the earth for the elevation and 
the ceaseless good of all mankind. Let the grand 
principles of our civilization have full and free course, 
and be applied in their complete power to the life of 
all men within our borders. Let us have faith — and 
work as though we had it — that the true instincts of 
the great American heart will yet vindicate themselves, 
remove the American reproach, and erase the foul blot 
which stains even now the American escutcheon ! 
Let us have faith in the power of those great ideas of 
freedom, democracy, and human equality which, we 
are glad to know, are American ideas ! Above all, 
let us have faith in the Providence of that Almighty 
Being, who watches over the affairs of human life 
with a Father's care, and permits no worthy effort for 
the good of his children to fail ! That time will come, 
so let us believe, when this mighty empire, its bound- 
aries filled with a free and enlightened people, enjoy- 
ing the blessings of unalloyed liberty, and accom- 
plished in all the arts of a really christian civilization, 
shall be indeed, as it was intended to be, the political 
hope and comfort of mankind — presenting, to the 
enraptured gaze of the world, 

"The vision of a Christian man, 
In virtue as in stature great, 
Embodied in a Christian State I" 



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